Shopper footfall saw an unexpected and significant drop on New Year's Eve as cautious consumers switched their spending to online retailers, figures show.

UK bricks and mortar retailers suffered a 10.5% drop in footfall compared with the same 24 hours on New Year's Eve last year, according to monitoring service Springboard. However, there were no separate details for Northern Ireland.

Shoppers did have to contend with wind and rain from Storm Dylan, which could have led some to change plans, but the weather had mainly cleared up by the early evening.

The poor performance follows an overall 4.5% fall on Boxing Day, while footfall was down 2.3% between December 27 and December 30 - when it was hoped retailers would see their tills recover during the peak sales period.

UK high street footfall for the Boxing Day sales fell by 5.9% on last year as the number of shoppers hunting for bargains on Christmas Day rose. However, in Northern Ireland, high street footfall was up nearly 23%.